Soraka/Strategy
Gameplay Two years after brushing up her visuals, we’re taking a second look at the goatiest of champions, Soraka! This time the Champion Update team’s focusing on her gameplay, so while her bananas stay the same, we’re updating and tweaking a few of her abilities. Here’s the rundown!Champion Update: Soraka, the Starchild ;Abilities Passive= ;Salvation Soraka gains significant movement speed when she moves towards heavily wounded allies. |-|Q= ;Starcall Soraka calls down a meteor at a target location, damaging all enemies caught by the explosion and dealing extra damage and a to enemies directly under the impact. |-|W= ;Astral Infusion * Soraka heals herself whenever she hits an enemy champion with . * Soraka sacrifices to heal a nearby ally. |-|E= ;Equinox Soraka briefly conjures a celestial zone at a target location. Enemies standing above the zone are until they leave, while if they’re standing above Equinox when it collapses, they’re briefly . |-|R= ;Wish Soraka summons a global heal for all allied champions. ;Laning ’s a support who works best in the immediate proximity of her marksman. Here she can keep her lane partner healthy with before turning to to damage the enemy bot lane champions and restore some of her own health. has serious potential to win trades, too – casting it beneath an enemy AD caster ( and , for example) greatly reduces their damage output, while using it beneath the enemy support cuts off their ability to use their array of abilities and summoner spells. can be a lifesaver when the enemy jungler comes in to gank, too. Whenever Soraka casts the portal along the jungler’s attack route, she effectively forces them to choose between a longer gank path and the ability’s silence/snare field. Additionally, if her marksman is already close to death but closer to the relative safety of their tower, then the speed boost from helps Soraka motor away from her enemies. Of course, if all else fails, Soraka can break the emergency glass and hit the big red button to buy her allies a few extra seconds of life. ;Teamfights Soraka’s teamfight presence relies on sharp decision-making and making the most of ’s extremely low cooldown. Though she’s generally better off sticking close to – and healing up – her team’s backline, gives her enough movement speed to fly to the frontline and heal her suffering tanks. This presents risks, though: without the extra movement speed, she returns to her team’s backline – and safety – relatively slowly, giving the enemy team plenty of opportunities to wade in and cut her down. Soraka can diminish this threat by casting on the battle’s frontline, hopefully dissuading all but the most determined assassins from bursting through to kill her. Finally, has enough raw power to turn around seemingly lost fights. Timing is critical: using it early on tops off health and keeps the momentum of a fight in your team’s hands, but saving it until the last moment grants significantly more health and can fully dispirit a confident enemy team. Champion Spotlight Recommended Items Tips ;Playing As * is a powerful ally in battle, using her strong healing to keep the party moving forward. * You can use on your allies from across the map to save them from otherwise fatal events. * can be used as a powerful zoning tool to keep enemies at bay. ;Playing Against * Focus on attacking when she ever ventures to the frontline to heal her allies. * Take advantage of long cooldown on if she uses it to harass. * It's easier to focus than the ally she is healing. Tips ;Ability Usage * Use to weave in and out of danger and determine which ally needs healing. Be careful not to lead yourself into danger, as some allies may not be able to be saved. ** indicator, which appears on allies below 40% maximum health, also indicates when they will receive the 50% increased heal from . ** only gives bonus movement speed when approaching low-health allies in range. Thus, it might even be beneficial to leave allies low just long enough to escape danger. ** Observant enemy players will be able to notice changes in movement speed when a low-health ally is in range. Be sure that your jungler or roaming ally does not enter your vicinity at low health if you need their presence to be elusive. * Leveling at rank 1 is desirable if you and your laning partner seek to reach level 2 first. ** Maxing it first will give greater poke potential, a larger self-heal, and enable lane dominance. It also extends the duration of Rejuvenation when casting on an ally. ** projectile falls more slowly the longer the distance at which it is cast from. *** If cast from a long range, you may need to lead your target. Oftentimes in laning, the enemy laner will move back after last-hitting a minion. Try casting the ability behind them. However, keep in mind that moving forward far enough to do so may put you in range of retaliation. *** In desperate circumstances or situations where you may need to land a faster consider casting it as close to as possible. This is easiest using to get on top of an opponent beforehand. ** Sometimes, it may be unnecessary to use if is at full health, and if is maxed first instead, the damage in early laning may be negligible. In this case, it may better to conserve your mana for more appropriate times. ** provides vision of unwarded brush for a brief period. Use this to check bushes rather than warding them or directly facechecking, as this can help prevent unwanted deaths. * Leveling at level 1 is desirable if you wish to give your a jungler a "perfect" leash in the support role, need to level it on-point in the case of early jungle invades, and/or seek to play passive in lane. Maxing it first will dramatically buff the heal on an ally. ** should be able to heal her jungler once during the leash, step out of experience range when her jungler the buff, and then heal her jungler a second time while heading to lane with her ADC in a fashionable time frame. ** Despite its health cost, has a relatively low mana cost. As such, in a support role in lane, can remain relevant with only a couple points of extra mana regeneration. ** Reserving her until after she has hit enemy champions with will pass the health regeneration onto her target ally and maximizes the ratio of health and mana cost to heal amount. ** Casting many times over a short period can drain a large portion of health. Be mindful of positioning in extended trades. ** Once both and are leveled at least once, should be seeking to land s to regain some or all of the health that is lost from casting . *** If fails to land enough sufficient , it may be necessary to invest in some alternative health restoration methods through itemization, including health regeneration and consumables. ** can be a powerful, though risky, lane control tool if used effectively. * is rarely leveled first and is typically the last ability to be maxed. ** Due to instantaneous cast time, it can be used to swiftly interrupt channeled abilities, such as or . *** Alternatively, it can also be used as a trap to prevent enemy champions from engaging from a or other global ability. For example, when placed in the epicenter of , it can prevent him from leaping onto an ally with due to the field and will subsequently him, making him vulnerable to a counter-engage. ** Because the from is extremely difficult to land, consider using it as a crowd-control extension ability instead. When , for example, lands a on multiple enemies, a slightly delayed can effectively disable them for an even longer period of time - preventing them from and then ing them - allowing your allies to make quick work without fear of retaliation. ** When escaping from a dangerous situation, lead the path of your enemy and cast where they would be ed. ** While never guarantees a if any enemy champion simply walks over its entire radius, the from will make the more likely to occur. ** cannot deal damage to lane minions or neutral monsters. * Use in the early laning phase to make an impact on allied lanes across the map. ** If you are sure only a single ally will die and that a will not be able to save them, it may be wise to conserve it for a more appropriate use. ** Some enemy champions, like with , can constantly reapply over a period of time. Be sure to engage them in a more favorable circumstance when possible. ;Runes Usage * ;Item Usage * has two possible starting build paths to follow. ** is the recommended starting item of choice for a standard supportive build, as it can be built into a . The combination of health regeneration, mana regeneration, movement speed, and cooldown reduction will allow to sustain herself and her allies more often in an -centric ability path. *** However, Soraka has the lowest base health regeneration in the game, making the bonus health regen from much less effective on her than on most champions. ** More aggressive players who choose to max first can choose as a starting item, taking advantage of enhanced poke capabilities. This can be built into , which is good for catching up to enemies. *** Alternatively, can build either or from her (depending on the starting item) if she needs more free item slots. * has a wide variety of boots to choose from: ** or will allow her to weave in and out of danger and heal her allies more easily. Build the former if you expect to take some damage and/or if the enemy team has a lot of slows. Build the latter if you expect to roam often. ** may be necessary against teams with more than one auto-attack reliant champion. ** is a boon against CC- and magic damage-heavy teams. ** might be a possible choice if you do not plan on building a or other forms of cooldown reduction. * has strong utility and strong base burst damage, so consider building items that complement this utility: ** An early is recommended, as with all supports, as has very little mobility and peel, and the vision can help both her and her lane partner to foresee ganks ahead of time. ** offers a mixture of defense and utility. Due to the spammable nature of Soraka's heals, she stacks the item very quickly. Once the passive kicks in, her heals become amplified. The mix of Armor, CDR, and mana also help to make her windows of weakness a bit harder to exploit. ** can help turn the tides in a teamfight if more than one team member is auto-attack reliant. A well-timed can allow your team to focus down an enemy or tower more quickly and can apply the attack speed buff in smaller skirmishes. It combos well with , as the attack speed allows your carries to abuse the 50% bonus critical strike change more effectively. ** is a great buy. The stats benefit you and your team a great deal - you heal for more and make the effective health greater thanks to added resistances, but the biggest impact of this item lies in the active. ** A provides high mana regeneration, which is vital to allowing to support over a longer period of time, and some magic resistance. *** is the more offensive upgrade if you are looking to be more aggressive. *** is key for a more passive play style and helps immensely against a CC-heavy team if you are looking to protect a valuable carry. * Aside from and , which are usually core for most supports, building health on is discouraged due to 's percent health cost. Avoid items like and . ** However, with the right runepage and items a build is viable. Due to the rapid hp regen. * and are valuable builds against heavy magic damage. Consider buying an Aegis into a Locket once you see a magic damage dealer on the enemy team making a strong impact. * Stacking resistance items is preferable on because such items do not increase 's health cost. ** should be the go-to defensive item against physical damage. It provides a healthy dose of armor, mana, and cooldown reduction. The attack speed reduction should also help against auto-attack reliant champions. ** is a decent item if the enemy team has a hefty amount of magic damage. It should also help if your team has more than one magic damage dealer. ** If you and your team are ahead, a can provide an edge by giving a healthy amount of ability power and armor. The stasis passive can also aid 's survivability. * Outside of stacking resistances, should be able to make use of a hefty amount of s even on a support's budget, as she will often be below max health. ;Countering * depletes her own health to heal others. Try dodging her early on as it is the only way she can replenish health on her own (besides health regeneration and s). ** Soraka can also restore her own health with and . However, is still her primary method of self-healing, and dodging it is very important if you don't have enough burst damage or crowd control to counter her sustain. * has a short range (550). Try bursting her down so that she cannot heal her allies. * The key to keep her down in lane is to poke her down slowly and dodge . This will keep her vulnerable when she tries to heal her lane partner with . * and can assert lane dominance against her. A well timed hook from either champion can force her to use and play more cautiously. ** However you must play very aggressively. Otherwise Soraka will actually end up outsustaining and outharassing both of them. * Picking instead of can also be an option not only to zone Soraka with the threat of being killed, but also because of the . However, keep in mind the rest of her team, because if it has dangerous mobile assassins such as and , then it is better to still take instead of . References Category:Champion strategies Category:Soraka de:Soraka/Strategie ru:Сорака/Strategy